Stabbing Victim Urges Treatment for Attacker at Sentencing

By Laura Berol - January 3, 2025
Court | Daily Stories | stabbing | Suspects |

“If I had died, my blood would be not only on his hands but on the hands of a mental healthcare system that had failed him,” a stabbing victim said about his assailant at a sentencing before DC Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt on Dec. 20.

On Oct. 15, Cristian Martinez, 19, pleaded guilty to assault with intent to kill for the non-fatal stabbing of one individual on March 13 on the 1700 block of Lamont Street, NW. 

Judge Brandt sentenced Martinez to five years of incarceration but suspended two years of the sentence. She gave him 18 months of probation and a suspended sentence of three years of supervised release. Martinez is required to pay $100 to the Victims of Violent Crime fund.

Addressing the court virtually, Martinez’s victim described how he was attacked while out taking a walk. He said he needed extensive physical therapy in the months after the assault and was told by a doctor he would have died if the angle of the stabbing had been slightly different. 

“My immediate reaction was anger. I felt violated,” said the victim. 

After talking to Martinez and his parents, though, the victim felt much angrier at “the mental healthcare system in our country that is broken.” He learned Martinez had sought treatment but couldn’t afford the medication he needed.

“I know that to admit you need help and to seek it out are difficult things, and Cristian has done both,” said the victim. 

The victim said Martinez’s attack was inspired after hearing voices in his head that had been controlled by medication he has been given in DC Jail and St. Elizabeths Hospital. The victim expressed concern Martinez might not continue receiving adequate care if sentenced to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP). 

“I worry about the person Cristian will become after three years in prison,” said the victim. If Martinez’s issues are not addressed, he continued, society may be safer while he’s incarcerated, but not when he gets out. 

The victim asked Judge Brandt to find an alternative to prison so Martinez can get the help he needs. He noted Martinez’s youth and said treatment is most likely to be successful if it occurs early on. 

“You have just blown my mind with your openness, your honesty, your kindness,” said Judge Brandt.

“Here you are, the victim of a stabbing, and you are allocuting for a better system, better treatment for your attacker. You have just given us all a masterclass in this courtroom for what grace is supposed to look like,” Judge Brandt said. “I think, if you were here in this courtroom, I would walk off the bench and just hug you.”

The prosecutor called Martinez’s attack “a gratuitous, wanton act of violence.” She said Martinez cut the victim’s jugular vein, displaying clear intent to kill, since the victim could have bled out and died before he was rescued.

The prosecutor asked Judge Brandt to sentence Martinez to five years in prison. She said Martinez has failed to comply with treatment in the past. If he were released on probation, he might stop treatment and attack someone else, perhaps fatally.

“He wants to get the help. He doesn’t want to be doing the things he has done,” argued Martinez’s attorney, Alvin Thomas, Jr. “He has not made any excuses. He has not talked about how he could get out of this.” 

Thomas asked Judge Brandt to sentence Martinez to the minimum time in prison and to request his placement at a facility where he has access to mental health care. 

“He is going to get out sometime. Without the treatment, without some structure, he might come out worse than he’s going in,” said Thomas.

“I just want [the victim] to know that I’m so sorry for attacking him, and I want you to know that my mental health has been better since I’ve been in jail. The only thing is I feel like I’m starting to get worse while I’m in jail,” Martinez told the court. “I feel like I’m in a spaceship. I don’t feel like I’m in jail. But the voices have stopped.” 

“A lot of kind things have been said about you. A lot of loving things have been written about you from your parents,” Judge Brandt told Martinez. “Knowing as you do that you suffer from mental health issues, you cannot let drugs enter into the equation. You did that to yourself.” 

Judge Brandt said she would recommend Martinez be placed at a federal medical center while in prison so he can receive mental health care. She ordered him to complete a General Education Diploma (GED) during his incarceration.

Judge Brandt ordered the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) to develop a treatment plan for Martinez and place him in a supervised mental health unit during his probation. She ordered him to abstain from all drugs, including marijuana. 

Judge Brandt sentenced Martinez under the Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA), which will allow his conviction to be sealed if he successfully completes his sentence. 

“[The victim] moved me, and so I’m paying it forward,” Judge Brandt told Martinez. “Don’t squander it.”

No further hearings are scheduled in this case.